The lads arrived on a sunny Sunday morning to play Witney, and shortly after the start of the game Witney managed to find an overlap and score in the corner, but with an unsuccessful conversion, the scoreboard showed 5 – 0 to the hosts. Gosford’s restart was kicked short, however, the ball wasn’t claimed and we found Witney attacking the Gosford 5-meter line and again scoring, the conversion was missed 10 – 0, this wasn’t the start we had planned for.

The next few phases saw each team attack and Gosford All Blacks won the first scrum of the game, and from this the lads got into the Witney 22, then with a penalty we kicked to the corner and set a strike play which resulted in our first score of the game from Harry Beesley, the conversion attempt hit the post and the scoreboard flashed up 10 – 5.

Witney kicked deep at the restart and Gosford All Blacks cleared our lines well, but the following phases saw a kicking battle, which ended with a nice cross-field attempt from Witney, but the ball rolled dead. Scrum 2 of the game saw GAB pushing the Witney pack backwards again, however, they managed to get the ball out and find a gap, 15-5 the conversion was missed and it was looking like a bad day for the kickers. The game restarted and Witney strung a few phases together to score and this time the conversion was good, 22 – 5. Just before half-time, we saw the squad debut for William Hipkiss, welcome back Will.

The game restarted and the ball was hotly contested around the halfway line, however, the GAB lads managed to come out on top, following a penalty they kicked to the corner again, this time the forwards did the job with Quinn Slade scoring, and the conversion was missed but the scoreboard increased 22 – 10.

Shortly after the restart, the GAB lads found themselves in the Witney 22 with an attacking scrum, this was won and a very lovely worked attack play saw Witney make a try-stopping tackle, the following forward carry forced Witney to step offside, and the referee gave us an advantage, so Joe Beesley took full advantage and scored, this time the conversion was good, 22 – 17. The game was restarted and the Gosford lads managed to turn the ball over, however, the counterattack was stopped and a penalty was awarded to Gosford, Harry B attempted to take 3 points from a penalty, but sadly it wasn’t to be. Witney kicked to clear, which was kicked almost directly back to Harry Beesley, he managed to get around the defence and score with the conversion the scoreboard showed us in the lead, 22 – 24.

The restart with Witney was shallow and then thanks to the bounce of the ball it went over the heads of the oncoming Witney players, Jack Martin didn’t need a second invitation and flew down the wing to score, Harry did the honours from the tee and the score increased to 22 – 31. Another restart saw the ball in Witney’s hands this time the lads shipped the ball coast to coast in attack and put another 5 points on the board, 27 – 31 it’s a tight and exciting game.

Great use of attacking kicking towards the end of the game saw Gosford All Blacks attacking but this time they found no way past, the Witney lads pulled together several solid phases of rugby and scored again, the conversion was missed, but the gap between the teams was tight, 32 – 31. However, the Beesley Boys linked together and put Joe under the sticks, 32 – 38 what a great game to watch.

The game restarted and Witney attacked the Gosford line, the lads defended with everything they had left but they managed to give away a penalty for offside, this was converted into a penalty try by the referee, this was a rather strange decision but never the less the scoreboard shows 39 – 38 and shortly after the final restart of the game the final whistle came.

Well Done to both sets of players it was a great game, played in the right way. This is what rugby is all about.